McDaniels appeared willing, but Bates wanted to call plays, so he left to become the assistant head coach at Southern California. Part of what sold Bates to USC coach Pete Carroll was Bates' development of Cutler with the Broncos.

Near the end of the 2008 season, Cutler told the Rocky Mountain News that Bates had done a great job and praised him for making adjustments.

"We work great together," Cutler said.

Bates might not have been born to coach, but he certainly was raised to wear a whistle.

Bates was the football equivalent of an Army brat. His father, Jim Bates, spent 18 years as a college football coach and 20 years as a pro coach.

The younger Bates first was exposed to big-time football as a 5-year-old when his father would take him to camp with him at Texas Tech. He told the Rocky Mountain News his father had just one rule for him.

"Only the one rule, and if I broke it, I just couldn't come anymore, that would be it," Bates said. "I wasn't allowed to talk. I just had to hand him the ball when he needed it and not say a word. Just watch, listen and hand him the ball. Well, I didn't want to stay home and I didn't want to be anyplace else, so I just shut up, learned the game and did that one job."

In the decade since graduating from Rice, where he played quarterback, Bates, 33, has worked for some of the brightest coaches in football, including Jeff Fisher, Jon Gruden and Mike Shanahan. He seems destined to be an NFL head coach at an early age -- the next McDaniels or Gruden.

People who know Bates say Gruden had a major influence on him. When he worked for the Buccaneers under Gruden, he labored preposterously long hours like Gruden and even picked up some of his mannerisms, according to a source who was on the staff.

"He grew a lot under Jon," said former Bucs quarterback Shaun King, who worked every day with Bates. "It was a good experience for Jeremy. Jon could wear on his players, and Jeremy saw that. And he learned from it. They guys I have talked with who have played for him since love him. He's a player's coach."

King describes Bates as a football junkie who didn't have a life outside of his work.

"He was always wearing dirty, dingy sweat shirt and khakis, and he always had football plays in his hand," King said. "The thing you could see is he was really in love with football. He would do everything they let him do. You could tell right away he was going to be successful."

Gruden, who played quarterback at Dayton and also is the son of a coach, shaped Bates' offensive philosophy. Like Gruden, he believes in using many formations and pre-snap disguises. His playbook is a derivative of the West Coast offense.

One reason Cutler likes Bates so much is Bates likes to air it out. He spreads the field, uses a lot of shotgun and plays multiple wide receivers. During his one season as the Broncos' play-caller in 2008, they threw the ball on 61 percent of the snaps.

He reeled it in as USC's play-caller in 2009, but that might have been mostly because he had a freshman quarterback.

Bates knows how to play to his team's strengths and minimize weaknesses.

"Jeremy is brilliant," said Titans offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger, who recommended Bates to Mike Shanahan in Denver after working with him on the Jets. "He's very imaginative. He comes up with a different game plan every week. He does a great job of changing the formations. He diagnoses well."

Like Cutler, Bates is gifted but rough around the edges. People who have worked with him have described him as stubborn, arrogant and defensive.

"He had that cocky, 'I know more than you' attitude," King said. "We would give him a hard time about it."

Even Cutler acknowledged he and Bates clashed.

"Yeah, we yell at each other, we get mad at each other, that's how it is," Cutler told the Rocky Mountain News. "We're both such competitors, it happens."

Bates was criticized for USC's disappointing season, but it hasn't hurt his stock. In addition to Bates being a candidate for the Bears' job, it also has been reported he could go to the Seahawks as their offensive coordinator if Carroll accepts an offer to be their head coach.

Whatever happens in the next couple of weeks, it seems Bates is certain to continue a climb that began long ago.